Ukrainian authorities on Thursday ruled out achieving a ceasefire in the country on the occasion of Christmas and New Year since there is no proposal on the table, but noted that the truce would only be possible if Russian forces agree to leave the territory.
Army General Oleksi Gromov told a press conference that «there will be no full ceasefire from the Ukrainian side until there is not a single occupying force left in the area,» UNIAN news agency reported.
«At the moment, the situation on the front has not changed significantly,» he lamented before stressing that Ukrainian forces have managed to advance about 1.5 kilometers towards the locality of Kreminna, in the Lugansk region.
Previously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine this Christmas, but the move was completely rejected by the Russian government.
This very week, the Kremlin has affirmed that it has not received any proposal to declare a ceasefire in Ukraine coinciding with Christmas, although it has made clear that this possibility is not on the agenda of a government, which continues to justify its offensive on the need to protect the local population.
«No proposals have been received from anyone,» the main spokesman of the Russian Presidency, Dimitri Peskov, told the media when questioned about the possibility of at least a temporary truce, during the next few weeks, reports the Interfax agency.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine began last February 24 and, despite the counter-attack measures, Moscow continues to maintain control over about 18 percent of the territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
